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Ridgway boys basketball upends Curwensville |
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Saturday, 19 December 2009 |
By Greg Reedy
Sports Editor
Ridgway boys basketball notched its second consecutive win with a 75-49 victory against Curwensville Friday night at Ridgway Area High School.
Curwensville was the team to come out strong, starting the game with a 9-2 lead after two minutes of play.
"We were getting a little loose on the defense," Ridgway coach Anthony Allegretto said. "We were getting undisciplined and allowing penetration. And they heard about it, and they heard about it at halftime and they heard about it after the game.
They're going to hear about it tomorrow at practice.
"We started gambling and having a little too much fun going for the steals for easy baskets and not playing on the other end," Allegretto said. "Curwensville did a good job at the beginning, they broke the press a couple times and went right down the middle because no one was stopping the ball."
Curwensville's biggest lead was 12-4 midway through the first quarter until the Elkers (2-2) closed with a 10-3 run to pull within one at 15-14 entering the second quarter.
The two teams drew even at 21-all 3:30 into the second quarter when the Elkers closed the half on a 13-2 run to take a 34-23 lead into halftime. Allegretto said when the game was tied, he emphasized guarding the defensive gaps.
"That's about when I went nuts on guarding the gaps," Allegretto said. "We noticed that once we started playing the man-to-man half-court defense and guarding the gaps, they stopped scoring. We didn't want to be gambling, we didn't want to be reaching, we didn't want to be going after the ball. We wanted to control our man and when they did it, good things happened."
Allegretto said one big spurt during that run came when Ben Jaques knocked in a 3-pointer and then a 2-pointer on consecutive possessions.
"It was nice to see Ben hit some big shots, he hit that one big three when we really needed it and then I think he hit a two right after that," Allegretto said. "It was a nice little spurt that helped us out."
After halftime, Curwensville could not get back in the game, trailing by double digits the entire second half. Ridgway outscored Curwensville 16-10 in the third quarter to extend the lead to 17 at 50-33.
"In the second quarter, we had a chance to get the lead and couldn't get rid of them because we were allowing penetration in the half-court defense," Allegretto said. "We were reaching around, gambling. We went to just straight man, play the gaps and they started getting disciplined and started understanding what I wanted and doing it. The defense got a lot better and Curwensville had it a lot harder."
Ridgway had 10 players tally points. Eric Matheson led Ridgway with 29 points. Jordan Lundin had 12 and Ben Jaques had nine in a balanced Ridgway effort.
"Everybody's contributing, everybody's playing," Allegretto said. "We have 10 or 12 guys in there right off the bat. It's fun to play this way, you saw the crowd have fun, we have fun, the kids had fun."
Late in the game, Kevin Marnatti added a 3-pointer while Beau Bellotti and Mike Cappiello also contributed with basket. Allegretto said the team is enjoying the balance.
"We know we're young so we know there's going to be ups and downs once we figure this out," Allegretto said. "We got some kids that can play basketball and understand basketball. It's a lot of fun what we're doing and how we're playing, getting a lot of kids in the game. Beau came in and had a big shot, Kevin came in and had a big three, Mike Cappiello had a layup at the end of the game. The crowd was into it until the final buzzer. We played well."
Sam Gardner led Curwensville with 24 points.
Ridgway is scheduled to travel to Cameron County on Monday. In junior varsity action, Ridgway won 40-33.
Ridgway also held a night entitled "Bucks for Buckets" where proceeds from the 50/50 along with other donations would be used to aid area families for the holidays.
Curwensville 15 8 10 16 - 49
Ridgway 14 20 16 25 - 75
Curwensville - 49
Sam Gardner 9 4-7 24, Kyle Barrett 1 5-6 7, Alex Starr 2 2-5 6, Jed Greslick 1 3-4 5, Ben Johnson 1 0-0 3, Sam McGary 1 0-0 2, Ben McGary 1 0-0 2, Totals 16 14-25 49.
Ridgway - 75
Eric Matheson 8 11-12 29, Jordan Lundin 6 0-0 12, Ben Jaques 2 4-4 9, Jesse Reynolds 1 2-2 5, Kevin Marnatti 2 0-0 5, Dom Aiello 2 1-2 5, Alex Oknefski 2 0-0 4, Beau Bellotti 1 0-0 2, Aaron Sorge 1 0-0 2, Mike Cappiello 1 0-0 2, Totals 26 18-20 75.
3-pointers: Curwensville 3 (Gardner 2, Johnson 1), Ridgway 5 (Matheson 2, Reynolds 1, Jaques 1, Marnatti 1). |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 December 2009 )
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